Norwalk employee released from hospital

The Norwalk employee injured in an accident involving salt-spreading equipment Wednesday has been released from the hospital.

Safety-service director Dan Wendt released a prepared statement Thursday about the incident that happened just after 8 a.m. Wednesday.

“As I described, it is my goal to inform the public while maintaining the dignity of the injured worker’s family and complying with applicable privacy laws,” he wrote.

Norwalk firefighters, police and North Central EMS responded to a call about “a male stuck in a salt spreader” at 42 Woodlawn Ave.

“The auger system was running while the employee was emptying excess road salt into one of the bays at the general services department. During the procedure, the employee’s arm became entangled in the apparatus,” Wendt said.

“Norwalk (firefighters) and NCEMS worked with general services employees to extricate the injured worker. Next, the patient was taken to a hospital via helicopter,” he added.

Norwalk Mayor Rob Duncan earlier said he and Wendt planned to visit the employee in the hospital, but declined to release the victim’s name or identify the hospital.

“I would like to thank Mr. John Chime from Family Life Counseling for clearing his schedule to help our general services employees talk through this traumatic experience. The city of Norwalk is grateful for his willingness to come forward and help our employees deal with critical incident stress,” Wendt said.

“As of 2:30 p.m. on March 16, 2017, the injured employee has been released from the hospital. Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured employee and their family. On behalf of the city, I would like to thank both our employees and the first-responders for their professionalism and help during this difficult incident.”